A new initiative by global information services company Experian and social investment firm Big Issue Invest is aiming to make it easier for social tenants to access financial services provided online.
Experian and Big Issue Invest have partnered to create The Rental Exchange, which will allow social landlords to submit information about their tenants’ rent payment history to Experian, which will strengthen their credit history. This supports more successful electronic verification of a tenant’s identity when they search and apply for financial services online.
Adding rental payment data to an application would result in 84 per cent of social housing tenants having a strong enough credit history to validate their identity and potentially gain access to more competitive online financial services. As a result, three-quarters (72 per cent) of social housing tenants’ credit scores would also increase, Experian says.
The company’s own research shows that one third (33.5 per cent) of social housing tenants in the UK do not have access to the internet at home, with one in seven (14 per cent) unable to get online at all, and three quarters (76 per cent) claiming they have never applied for online products and services.
Meanwhile, 61 per cent do not have enough of a credit history to enable online financial services and credit providers to verify their identities electronically, meaning they are often unable to get the best online deals and rates, or to even access an online product at all.
The Social Housing Tenants study also reveales that the digital exclusion is greatest amongst older age groups, with – almost a third (29 per cent) of tenants aged over 55 not having internet access at all, and 80 per cent saying they have never applied for products or services online.
Just one per cent of 18 to 34 year old tenants are without any internet access. However 68 per cent have never applied for online products and services.
One in five (19 per cent) social housing tenants living in London are not able to get online and 79 per cent have never applied for online products.
Jonathan Westley, managing director of Experian’s UK&I Consumer Information Services, comments:
“The digital authentication rate amongst social housing tenants is less than half of that of the wider population, and this group suffers financially as a consequence. If an online provider cannot fully authenticate a person, they either price their product based on a high level of risk, making the service more expensive, or simply refuse it. However, using rental data as part of the electronic authentication process improves the level of insight available for providers and means that fewer tenants are excluded from or pay a higher rate for products. This is all part of the challenge to digitally enable everyone. Digital inclusion stops isolation as well as giving access to online products and cheaper financial deals.”
